With the return of key players to their lineup at this weekend's Amherst Round Robin, the Jumbos offset tight competition throughout the ladder, splitting the four overall matches and scoring one of the team's biggest wins this season - a 6'minus;3 victory over conference foe Colby.
'Colby was one of our toughest opponents last year, because they have beaten us by close margins,' senior co'minus;captain Zach Bradley said. 'No matter what happened, we couldn't get over the hump to beat them. This time we came out really strong and had big wins throughout the lineup.'
Tufts benefited on Saturday from a Mules squad that graduated half of last year's roster, leaving a weakened unit ranked No. 21 in the nation, sitting just behind No. 19 Tufts.
With the Mules struggling in the transition to a younger squad, Tufts senior co'minus;captain Max Dalury, sophomore Henry Miller and senior Scott Leighton swept their respective opponents in three sets. In the No. 9 match junior Andrew Kim pulled out a four'minus;set victory after trailing his opponent 11'minus;9 in the first set.
Earlier on Saturday, the Tufts squad matched up against another NESCAC competitor, No. 17 Middlebury. Despite a commendable performance in which the Jumbos sent four matches into five sets, Tufts was ultimately outmatched in most positions. However, Kim managed to rally back from a 2'minus;1 deficit with close victories in the fourth and fifth sets for Tufts' sole victory in the 8'minus;1 loss.
'We were hoping for a better result, but [Middlebury] outplayed us in a lot of spots,' Bradley said. 'It's unfortunate that none of them went our way. I think that if we were to play them again we could turn the tables 'hellip; It wasn't an 8'minus;1 loss to us so much as something that we should build upon in that we need to pull out wins in those close games.'
In Sunday's matches against the 16th'minus;ranked Saint Lawrence Saints and No. 26 Hobart, the Jumbos rounded out the weekend by once again splitting their matches. In the 7'minus;2 victory over the Statesmen, the Jumbos picked up six of their eight victories in three'minus;set sweeps.
Tufts' performance against the Saints, however, was hardly smooth sailing. In that match, the Jumbos lost six of their matches in straight sets. Junior Alex Gross, who recently returned from abroad, picked up the Jumbos' sole win in the No. 1 position in a three'minus;set victory.
'It was nice to get a win at No. 1, but the rest of [Saint Lawrence's] lineup was pretty strong all the way through and they just took it to us in that match,' Bradley said.
At a 4'minus;6 overall clip, the Jumbos now must put their stock in juniors returning from abroad, like Gross and Ben Rind, and put a greater focus on technically sound play in the weeks ahead. With a match against national No. 1 Trinity this weekend and NESCAC Championships on the horizon, the Tufts squad is gearing up for its toughest stretch of the season.
'We want to go into this weekend strong, but we're also keeping an eye on NESCACs, which will affect where we place for Nationals,' Bradley said.
